Haim Be'er Explained

Haim Be'er (Hebrew: חיים באר), born on 9 February 1945, is an Israeli novelist.

Biography

Haim Rachlevsky (Be'er) was born in Jerusalem to an Orthodox Jewish family. He grew up in the Geula neighborhood, and attended Ma'aleh, a state religious high school. In 1963 - 1965 he served in the Israel Defense Forces in the army rabbinate, writing for the army newspaper Mahanayim. Concurrently he worked nights as a copy editor at the daily newspaper Davar.

In 1966, he began working at the Am Oved publishing house, first as a copyeditor and later as an editor and member of the editorial board. All his books have been published by Am Oved. For ten years, he wrote a weekly column called "Memoirs of a Bookworm" (Mi-zikhronoteha shel tolaat sefarim).

Be'er teaches Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Be'er's latest novel, El Makom Sheharuakh Holekh, ("Back from Heavenly Lake"; 2010), was inspired by a trek to Nepal and Tibet. Dedicated to the classic Yiddish writer Mendele Mocher Sforim, it is a mystical tale about a Hasidic rebbe from Bnei Brak who travels to Tibet.^[1]

Published works

Sha`ashu`ei Yom Yom (Day to Day Delights, poems, 1970)
Feathers (in English translation, 2004), originally Notzot (1979)
Et ha-Zamir (The Time of Trimming, 1987)
Gam Ahavatam Gam Sinatam - Bialik, Brenner, Agnon Ma`arakhot Yahasim (Their Love and Their Hate: Bialik, Brenner, Agnon, Relationships, biography, 1993)
The Pure Element of Time (in English translation, 2003), originally Havalim (1998)
Lifnei Hamakom ("Upon a Certain Place") (2007)

Awards (selection)

Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works, for poetry (1979)
Bernstein Prize, original Hebrew novel category (1980)^[2]
for literature, awarded by the Municipality of Holon (2000)
Bialik Prize for literature, jointly with Maya Bejerano, Yoel Hoffman and Miriam Rut (2002)^[3]

External links

"Haim Be`er" at the Institute for Translation of Hebrew Literature. Retrieved November 23, 2005.
Analysis of Be'er's literary style, Arnold Band - https://web.archive.org/web/20041019113219/http://www.ithl.org.il/interview1.html

Notes and References

http://www.haaretz.com/magazine/week-s-end/journey-of-a-thousand-miles-1.310518 Journey of a thousand miles
http://www.brandeis.edu/tauber/publications/feathers.html Feathers by Haim Be'er
Web site: List of Bialik Prize recipients 1933-2004 (in Hebrew), Tel Aviv Municipality website . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20071217143811/http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/Hebrew/_MultimediaServer/Documents/12516738.pdf . 2007-12-17.